Rent the Runway, the premier women's high-end fashion rental company, began with the goal of democratizing luxury by making high end designers accessible to women of all backgrounds. In order to achieve this goal, we aimed to understand every characteristic of our potential customers.
Net Promoter Score Increase
Retal locations opened in US after Feature Teasing Trial Success
CLV Increase for Customers with CI Touchpoint
As a Senior Customer Insights Associate, I assisted on some exciting projects that involved leveraging a deep understanding of the customers in order to drive the success and direction of the business.
Collecting valuable feedback from customers was a crucial element of Rent the Runway's success. I personally supported efforts to capture feedback by assist with several of these methods:
I also personally assisted in the development and execution of VIP In Depth Interviews, which involved a few of us sitting in Jenn's office and listening to several loyal customers on speakerphone as Jenn asked interview questions. We aimed to pinpoint the benefits that kept them coming back to renting, and understand what they liked most, would like to see more of, discover any pinpoints.
Sitting in Jenn Hymen's office floor as 4-5 of us listened to VIP customer on speaker phone, is a lasting memory from RTR. Being curious and passionate about customers was a foundational trait at this company, that influences my approach to research to this day.
Early on, the idea to Filter by Date reached the co-founders because the CI Team heard directly from customers this feature would be the tipping point from being a browser to being a renter.
Insights captured from the CI team proved incredibly valuable to the business. As FLU (front line unit) of the business, CI was the direct link between users, and the executive team. RTR developed a robust database and system to capture and catalogue each interaction. The effort to track and measure user/customer sentiment both helped the executives understand their customers, but it also helped empower the CI team to deliver quality experiences. This was an effort that paid off immensely when reporting around CLV revealed just how important CI interactions were.
This level of meticulous tracking detail also revealed the ROI for various marketing efforts. By tracking touchpoint sentiment, our Data analytics team was able to measure the quantifiable impact of interacting with customers, "Surprising and Delighting Efforts" and other Feature Testing. All of these efforts led to an increase in Customer Lifetime Value significantly (when compared to CLV of customers who did not interact with CI or Stylists).
18% increase in conversion for members who had not yet rented to placing their first order after interacting with a CI Team member.
KPIs were reported each week across the department, to indicate volume, identify potential risks that could impact customers, and communicate department KPIs to other internal teams. Each week, we reviewed the various outcomes of a rental, and developed a robust system to capture feedback and segment post-conversion customers. CI helped with quantifying qualitative interactions, and categorizing interaction type to build out usable data. The information gathered by UI and used throughout the company demonstrates the collaborative nature that helped make RTR a success. Some of the categories monitored led to CLV and customer segmentation analytics were :
I will always credit my years at RTR with demonstrating the value of actionable insights, using data for story telling, and living the concept of "you can't manage what you don't measure."
Testing the hypothesis was second nature at RTR. If you had a hunch, you might get to run some trials, conduct feature teasing, or lead an experiment to uncover more substantial proof that your idea was worth devoting some resources. One project I was tapped to assist on was the "Try On Parties" we held in the HQ in NYC. We aimed to understand if offering a Dress Fitting before the Rental Date Searched would increase user conversion. So, over a period of 4 weeks, I hosted 8 parties for 20+ Frequent Browswers who lived locally. The experiment was a resounding success. This was one effort that validated the hypothesis that people were reluctant to commit to a rental when they had doubts about the dress fitting. If they could try on the dress in advance, their conversion rate jumped 25% compared to the control group.
Outcomes: